Clark, who has recently recruited several former advisers to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was speaking at the Reform party founder’s annual conference of politicians, strategists and thinkers under the banner: “A Conservative family reunion.”

She boasted of her government’s commitment to family values, which she defined on economic terms, and stressed her support for liquefied natural gas projects and the pipelines needed to distribute the project across northern B.C.

“We support pipelines in British Columbia,” she told her audience in a veiled reference to criticism in Alberta over her on-the-fence position on the proposed Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline to Kitimat, B.C.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford urged Clark last year to embrace Gateway as a project in the national interest.

But Clark, in response to a question from the oilsands capital city of Fort McMurray, said British Columbians still need to see evidence that the economic benefits outweigh the environmental risks.

That case still hasn’t been made, she said, which is why the government is awaiting a National Energy Board decision expected several months after the May 2013 B.C. election.

But she stressed that B.C. can still be a gateway for Canadian natural resources to booming Asian markets and cited as evidence her government’s support for liquid natural gas, which is far less of an environmental risk because the gas would dissipate quickly after a spill.

“We have a duty to Canada” to easy the flow of products to Asia, she told her audience.

Clark is in the fight of her political life in B.C. due to the challenge from a number of Manning’s former Reform MPs who have moved into provincial politics under ex-MP John Cummins, the B.C. Conservative leader.

She has enlisted Manning and two of the Reform founder’s top MPs, including ex-Harper ministers Chuck Strahl and Jay Hill, to blunt the attack from the right.

But so far that hasn’t paid off. Manning said publicly in October that he supports Clark, not Cummins, as the best bet to keep the NDP from taking power.

But polls consistently show the B.C. Liberals are well behind the NDP due in part to the erosion of its base caused by Cummins’ support.

Manning tried again at a reception Thursday night where Clark was introduced to conservatives by her new chief of staff, former Harper strategist Ken Boessenkoool.

Manning reminded the audience that Clark is supporting legislation to allow B.C.’s nominees for the Senate to be elected.

And he pointed out that the recent budget has been lauded as the most conservative provincial budget in the country.

On Friday, he repeated that flattery before comparing Clark to his former deputy leader Deb Grey, a tough parliamentarian who usually led MPs in the traditional Wednesday singing of the national anthem before question period.

Manning always described Grey as a cross between Canadian singer Anne Murray, whose biggest hit was Snowbird, and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady.

“I think we’ve found another Iron Snowbird.”

Clark, who also met Friday with Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver to discuss federal plans to streamline the environmental assessment review process, was asked if she was disappointed that her efforts to woo small-c conservatives still hasn’t blunted Cummins’ support.

“None of this stuff happens overnight,” she said in an interview.

Clark also brushed off New Democratic Party Leader Adrian Dix’s assertion earlier this week that Clark isn’t sticking up for B.C. on federal-provincial issues.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest held a joint news conference earlier this week to complain that Ottawa is off-loading its deficit problems onto the provinces by making unilateral decisions on health transfers and by enacting costly tough-on-crime legislation.

Clark said it’s not in B.C.’s interests to bash Ottawa, though she pointed out that she’s openly criticized Ottawa for moving to a new health-care funding policy that doesn’t consider B.C.’s relatively older population.

That approach is “really silly,” she said.

“It doesn’t make any sense and I’ve been pretty clear about that with our federal counterparts. And we want to find a way to fix that, because it means $255 million out of our health care budget.”

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